Gallery - Past Exhibitions - 2007 - Italy

In early spring I traveled to Northern Italy for two weeks, with a group of 8 students from a small English school. I was there as a resource person for a grade 12 graduating class on their year-end European cultural excursion. They were graduating from the Steiner Waldorf - Wynstones School, a 300 pupil private school in the highlands of Central England.

Since the founding of the first Steiner Waldorf School in the early 20th Century, the schools have grown to now number in the hundreds, spread over 60 countries. During that time period the schools have gained a reputation for their emphasis on imaginative learning and on an approach to education that encourages independent and creative thinking, as well as nurturing the development of a well rounded, open-minded individual.

Underlining the school's interest in the sciences and the humanities, our trip's itinerary was meant to bring to life some of what the students had learned in their class curriculum. Traveling first to the ancient town of Assisi we experienced the art and the architecture of the Byzantine period. Then in Florence we toured some of the world's best examples from the Gothic period. And finally in the amazing city of Venice we saw the city's superb examples of Renaissance art and architecture.

Their schooling gave the students a solid foundation in both music and the visual arts. All of our days in Italy were spent either touring galleries and museums or drawing and painting in court gardens and amid the sculptings of Michelangelo or the ornate plazas of Brunelleschi. The students were accomplished singers. Often by simply asking, they were granted permission to give impromptu concerts, singing inside many of the high vaulted domes of Northern Italy's cathedrals, basilicas, and palazzos.

My watercolours depicted here are done on site on 6.5" x 9" paper.:: BACK TO GALLERY